Indeed, the data show that some side streets, even in the West End, can go days without a time-limit ticket.

But Goldie finds chalking tires helps pass the time, so he usually makes it part of his daily routine.

After chalking tires, Goldie gives the cars on his route their two hours plus a five-minute grace period, then starts checking for violators, winding his way up and down the West End's maze-like streets and alleys.

As he starts to write tickets -- or, more accurately, punches them into his hand-held computer with a plastic stylus -- the time ticks by and Goldie starts to get anxious.

He knows that the longer it takes to get back to a car he chalked, the greater chance it will no longer be there.

"I want to pick up all my chalk," he says. "I don't want to lose any of it."

So many drivers are on the lookout for chalk now that some parking officers no longer use it.

Instead, they make note on their handheld computers of the position of the air-valve on both the front and back tires. If the valves are in the same place when they return two hours later, they know the vehicle hasn't moved.

"I'm not very computer-literate, so I do the old-school chalking," Goldie said.

Some drivers will try to wipe the chalk off their tires, he said, but few do a good enough job to beat the ticket.

"I look in the tread to see if there's little bits of chalk in there," he said. If he finds some, he gives out the ticket.

As Goldie punches in the information for each ticket into his hand-held, the violation notice spits out from a small printer beside him. The paper roll on the printer is good for about 70 tickets.

He's got another roll in his jacket pocket, just in case.

As he begins entering a plate number for one chalked car, a woman arrives, gets in and starts to drive away.

Goldie just shrugs.

"She thinks she's getting away with it," said Goldie.

She's not.

Goldie just enters "Not Served" into his hand-held.

A few days later, the vehicle's registered owner will get a ticket in the mail.

Another woman walks up to his car to complain about a ticket he just put in her windshield.

She tells him she was at a fitness class and had to stay late because someone in the class fell.

"Well that's a good defence if you want to dispute the ticket," he said.

"But I'm literally, like, five minutes over the time," she protests.

Goldie checks his notes.

"No, you're actually 20 minutes over the time. I chalked you at noon," he said.

The woman pauses for a few moments.

"I must have come early today," she said. "That's really disappointing that because I took the time to help somebody, I have to get a ticket."

Goldie is unmoved.

"Everybody that comes around and talks to me after I write a ticket has an excuse or an explanation or a reason," he said.

Eventually, the woman walks off.

Except for safety issues such as bus zones and no-stopping areas -- for which there is zero tolerance -- parking officers are given wide discretion by the city not to issue a ticket or to cancel one they've already entered.

Goldie doesn't use that discretion very often.

"I think most of the stories are bull-s---," he said.

He said in one instance, he was writing a ticket at a meter outside a downtown pedicure shop when the car's owner rushed out to say she only went inside to get change.

The woman was barefoot, with foam between her toes.

Goldie said his nearly three decades as a Vancouver police officer has given him little patience for people who complain about a $30 or $45 ticket.

"When I was a policeman, I didn't take anywhere near the kind of abuse I take in this job," he said. "I didn't get the whining and snivelling you get in this job. ... I've arrested guys for armed robbery that put up no fuss at all."

As an auxiliary parking officer, Goldie works part-time.

He likes the job, he said. It pays decently -- $21 to $25 an hour -- and keeps him busy.

And his bosses let him wear shorts all day.

"I've done this job four years and I haven't worn long pants yet," he said.

He knows parking officers aren't very popular with the public and the job isn't for everyone.

"We do get people that start and after a month or two they're gone, by their own choice," he said.

But as much as people may hate getting a ticket, said Goldie, this city needs people like him.

As he drives up Robson Street he points to the meters lining the road.

If those meters weren't there, Goldie said, those spots would be taken up all day by people working downtown and the stores would have no parking left for their customers.

"And those shops would not be able to exist," he said. "There's too many people driving too many cars and they're not making any more roads. If people don't have consequences, the public will do exactly as they please when it comes to parking their cars."

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